I woke up with a massive headache and tear stained eyes, lying in an odd position on the floor, which reminded me of the hedgehog that James squished when I was nine. Wiping my eyes clean, and grunting up the ball lodged in my throat, I stood up. It felt like a demon had crawled into my head, held three consecutive parties, and then left without bothering to clean up. The door creaked open, and one of the nurses appeared with a pile of new, clean clothes. In less than five minutes, I’d washed, slipped into the clothes and was escorted out of the door.

“Lily, how are you feeling?” My doctor’s cheery voice stung my head, like a hundred happy elves and buzzy bees doing an Irish jig on my brain. In reply I simply grunted, and curled up onto the seat.

“Okay then, let’s get started, shall we?” She paused, almost wishing that I’d reply. She knew that I’d just sit there and stare at her blankly, my hands wrapped around my knees.

“This morning, I thought we could do something different. I understand from your last doctor’s notes that his methods weren’t really working well with you, so that is why you’ve been sent to me. I’m Doctor Lupine by the way. I’m going to show you some pictures, and you’re going to write down exactly what you see. Understand? Don’t try to go too fast or anything, I’d prefer it if you write down every last detail instead of rushing and affecting the results.”

Results? That explained it. Another test which is meant to magically figure out what state my mind is in. Pointless. I don’t see why someone doesn’t just whip up a spell or potion, and then this would be over in a flash.

The first card showed a blur of lines. Screwing my eyes up, I saw the Aquarius star sign in the top left and bottom right corners, and the Sagittarius in the centre, shooting some squirrels into a large fire in the sky. Probably the Sun, but still. I wrote this down, doodling a few pictures beside the notes, in case she hadn’t taken Muggle Beliefs as a study. After a few minutes, I passed the ragged notebook over to her, twiddling the biro in my hands. It was strange, using a muggle pen, instead of a normal quill. A special type which had ink automatically dispensed from it, which could be refilled with a small dose of a potion.

“Right. Well, how about this one?” Doctor Lupine asked, returning the notebook and a new card to me. I noticed that she’d removed the page I’d written on, and put it inside a small file on her desk.

This went on for a few more hours, shifting to mind teasers and a physical examination. She was a lot nicer than the other doctors, and it was a lot less awkward, as she was a fellow female. Slowly, I trudged back to the room, barely noticing the two ‘bodyguards’ who marched beside me. Even though it was barely five, I collapsed on the bed, wishing for this all to be over. For everything to just…disappear. Even the burning flying squirrels, which flew from every corner of my mind, armed with crooked swords and single arrows.

The next morning I was escorted to the dining hall. Only being released yesterday from isolation I wasn’t entirely trusted, and I needed to be kept an eye on for any change in mentality. As soon as the doors opened, the casual hum of voices stopped. Brilliant. Everyone stared at me, eyes turning with shocked expressions. They didn’t believe it, didn’t believe that THE Lily Potter was one of them. A mental idiot with absolutely no hope…as loony as Lovegood. Ha.

I snorted, much to the surprise of everyone in the room. Irony was a funny thing- my middle name was the name of my parents close friend Luna, who was as mad as Mad-eye Moody, from what I’ve heard of him. He’s dead. Maybe I’ll be dead soon as well, down there in blissful hell watching life carry on without me, pain tormenting me into endless oblivion. Oblivion would be nice, to forget everything; forget the pain and the torment, forget it all. As soon as I’m out of here I’m oblivioning myself, so I can just be normal. Dye my hair, wear contacts, maybe become a death eater.

I digress. Seriously, a death eater? That would just be disrespectful to Dad…yep, death eater it is.

Anyway, suddenly a girl burst out laughing at my snort. At first I was extremely confused, but I started laughing too. It was choked and bitter with the weeks of not being used, but eventually my voice cleared and both I and the girl keeled over laughing. Ooh, bad choice. My little helpers looked extremely worried and I wasn’t in the mood for more of the isolation treatment, so I straightened myself out and sat by her.

She had long black hair in two plaits down her shoulders, and bright blue eyes. Well, they were slightly grey, but I knew they had once been that azure kind of blue that reminded you of clear skies and glittering oceans. God I need a life, I’m thinking some nutcases eyes are like the oceans. She had obvious smile lines around her pale chapped lips, and she immediately welcomed me when I joined her.

“Hey there newbie. Can’t believe it’s really you- Lily Potter. I was such a big fan you know! I loved what you were wearing when you came up in the magazines, which was rare. Obviously I loved Dom’s style as well, how is her range going, oh yeah, you wouldn’t know would you? How long have you been here? A month right? Well, it’s still all over the papers, not the ones you’d get though; they’ll be getting rid of any pages resembling you just in case. Nobody believed it when they said you were in here, they thought you’d spend a little time in the rehab area and bing bang boom be home like that, because you’re the chosen ones daughter after all. Aren’t you going to get anything to eat, the foods up there, though I can’t talk can I, I haven’t eaten anything since Monday. Guessing by you though you haven’t eaten anything for months…one month actually! Talking about talking, am I talking too much?”

Oh. My. God. Just my luck. I got the complete mental one. She’s as bad as Luna and her husband Rolf. Even madder than the twins Lysander and Lorcan. Like, really, what sort of names are Lysander and Lorcan? Their last name is worse- Scamander. What kind of name is Scamander? I suddenly realise that the girl is patiently waiting for an answer, so I quickly try to say something, since I wasn’t entirely listening in the first place. Then I remembered my muteness and just frowned and pointed at my voice box area. Her expression was one which looked like the beginning of another ramble. A never ending ramble.

Well, this was going to be a long breakfast. And I hadn’t even seen what was on the menu.

After another burst of laughter from the girl, and a few more stares from the surrounding peeps, I got to know her. Her name was Amelia Hargrove; she was 17 and attended Hogwarts, like me. She was admitted three years ago after she was attacked by some muggles and killed them. She then went on a bit of a rampage, ending in 2 muggle deaths and 13 muggle injuries. Her parents hadn’t visited her, mainly because she blasted off her Mum’s hair and her Dad’s leg during the whole ‘kill all the muggles’ phase. (Sounds a bit like the beginning of Voldemort- KILL ALL THE MUGGLES!!!)

It took a while but we both got some food. On a plate, not actually into our system. The only thing I put into my mouth was some fizzy drink called ‘Fanta’ which was actually quite nice, seeing as it wasn’t really a wizard type drink. When the large clock on the opposite wall struck eleven, Amelia looked up excitedly. Seeing my bemused expression, she went on to explain, one eye still fixed on the door.

“You see, we’re what they call the ‘healables’. Not you, but the rest of us. We’re on a positive road to recovery, and are mainly only here because we’re either too young to go to Azkaban, or we have nowhere to go. You are new and haven’t been assessed yet, so you’re probably going to be a bit of a mix. Keep up with the mute thing though- it’s working. Anyway, at eleven, the others come in. Most people are with them. Jason, Amanda, Casey and Jake, as well as the twins, are my friends. So they’re going to be yours to. I’ll introduce them too you now.” She ended quickly as the door flung open, led by a scruffy looking boy with brown hair.

He had quite broad shoulders, and a slim figure, but this was nearly hidden by his large sweatpants and MCR top. I didn’t know what or who MCR was, or what it stood for, but judging by the make of it, it was definitely muggle. Behind him a few smaller, scrawnier kids scuttled across to other tables, but five other people stuck by his back. One was a tall blonde with large hair and pretty eyes (competition even for Dom), next to her a short brown haired girl with a constant fearful expression, twitching at every slight noise.

Another boy had ear length black hair, with a slight wave at the tips, and the twins were nearly curled into his arms. I knew they were the twins Amelia had mentioned, as they were…well, they were twins. Exact replicas of each other- short, purple, spiky hair, nearly black round eyes and full rose-red lips. The only difference was that one was a girl, the other a boy. They had the same height, weight, figure, they could have easily been each other if the boy didn’t have a stronger bone structure on his cheeks and the girl…well, she was definitely as girl. Case closed there. They joined us in a matter of seconds, sitting in what I guessed were their seats. Luckily there seemed to be one spare, which was the one I was sitting in.

“Hey, Amillies.” The first boy said, leaning back and putting his feet on the table. Amelia obviously had a serious crush on him, how she practically fainted when he recited her nickname. It was pronounced A-mille-s. Pretty cool if you’re asking me. When the others had all sat down, he suddenly leapt across the table until his nose was against mine.

Oh my God, I was going to die at the hands of a maniac in the middle of a mental hospital. Doesn't have a very good ring to it, does it? Like, death by dragon, or death by juggling burning chainsaws, but death by fellow maniac? Crud.

~Author's Note~

Hey, so I wrote this chapter a little while ago. Any problems with it just tell me in a review. If not, review anyway! What do you think's going to happen, who do like, who do you hate, stuff like that. I love knowing what you guys think. Thanks to you guys who are still reading, even though it's a bit of a weird story, and please carry on as you are. Ooh, and I also posted a one-shot 'Ebony'. Please read it if it interests you.